INE
SWEEPER Ben Campbell
Arcade action at its best! You've received a message that Tyrabian mine layers have been spotted just outside the Earth's at
mosphere. Intelligence reports indi cate that the Tyrabians intend to conquer the planet without destroy
ing it. The first wave of attack will attempt to destroy major military in stallations. The second wave will shut down the planet's major power stations. The third wave will crush any remaining pockets of resistance.
This game's frantic pace will keep you riveted to the screen for hours. For
the 64. Joystick required.
they get close. Sweepers, which pa
trol the entire airspace above a sec tor by constantly sweeping up and down, are distinguished by their
blue color. The best tactic for bat tling sweepers is to keep your drone
low. A searcher scans the sector and then moves directly toward any ob ject it detects. Searchers are distin guished by their green color and are nearly impervious to frontal as
see that the Gamma power station remains online and operational. Failure could lead to the Earth's de struction. You have nine Sigma V remote-control drone ships. The It takes several shots to get past the mine layer in this fast-action arcade challenge.
looking the power station, you
must destroy first the Tyrabian mines and then the mine layer it self. Five sectors (blue, yellow, white, green, and red) must be
ly, the viewer looks out over the power station. On the right side of the display, from bottom to top, are indicators for the current sector, the
cleared before the power station
number of drone ships remaining in
will be safe.
your arsenal, and your score.
Typing It In
and the first drone ship appears in the center of the viewer. The re
Press the fire button to begin
Mine Sweeper is written entirely in machine language, so you'll need to use "MLX," the machine language
entry program found elsewhere in this issue, to enter it. The MLX prompts, and the values you should type in, are as follows: Starling address: Ending address:
0801 2468
the pulse lasers in the drone. You will encounter three types of mines. Trackers, distinguished by their or ange color, home in on moving ob jects and, like all mines, explode on trackers is to shoot them before
interceptor base in the Gamma quadrant. As such, it's your job to
the interceptor control tower over
sector by destroying the mines with
contact. The only way to avoid
You're the commander of the
drones are equipped with the latest in impulse-laser technology. From
sectors adjacent to it. You clear a
mote viewer always remains cen tered on the currently active drone
sault; the best way to fight them is to dodge and attack from behind.
Once all the mines in the sector have been destroyed, the mine lay er must be destroyed. Mine layers have a pulse laser much like the one in the drone ships. This laser is an older model and can't fire as rap idly as a drone's can, but it's power ful enough to destroy a drone with only one hit. Mine layers are pro tected by a powerful force field. Each time you hit one with your pulse laser, the field is weakened, but it's constantly renewed by the
ship. When you move the joystick
mine layers' engines. You'll have to
left or right, the ship turns left or right, respectively, but remains cen
hit it many times to bring it down. If your drone is destroyed, the mine
tered in the display. When you
layers' force field regenerates to full
move the joystick up or down, the
power before you can activate a
ship moves vertically within the
new drone.
Be sure to save a copy of the pro gram before exiting from MLX.
display. Pressing the joystick but ton fires the pulse lasers. Holding
low, white, green, and red sectors
Mine Sweeper can be loaded and
down the joystick button causes the
in order to save the power station.
run like a BASIC program. To start
pulse lasers to fire rapidly, but the
Periodically (every 50 points), a
the game, load Mine Sweeper and
drain on the drone's power plant is
new drone ship is prepared for acti
type RUN.
so great that your maneuverability
vation. You'll need as many drones
The opening screen is filled with the view from the remote
is severely depleted.
as you can muster to save the power
viewer in the control tower. Initial-
must clear the mines from the five
To save the power station, you
You must clear the blue, yel
station.
See program listing on page 72. COMPUTE'S Gazette
July 1989
G 27